New Delhi: Nirbhaya’s parents urged Tuesday the
Delhi High Court to expeditiously decide the Centre’s plea challenging
stay on execution of the four convicts in the case of their daughter’s
gangrape and murder.

Advocate Jitendra Jha, representing the parents of Nirbhaya said he
mentioned the matter before the court for early disposal of the
government’s plea.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait, who had February 2 reserved order on the
Centre’s plea after holding special hearing Saturday and Sunday, said
the decision would be passed at the earliest.

The trial court January 17 issued black warrants for the second time
for the execution of all the four convicts in the case – Mukesh Kumar
Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar
(31) – in Tihar jail at 6.00am February 1. Earlier, January 7, the court
had fixed January 22 as the hanging date.

The court again stayed the execution January 31 as the counsel for
three convicts – Pawan, Vinay and Akshay – urged it to adjourn the
matter ‘sine die’ as the legal remedies of the convicts were yet to be
exhausted.

While the mercy pleas of Mukesh and Vinay have been rejected by the
President, Pawan has not yet filed it. Akshay’s mercy plea was filed
February 1 and is pending.

The Centre and Delhi government challenged the trial court’s order staying the execution.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing them, had contended that
it was a deliberate and calculated design of the convicts to ‘frustrate
mandate of law’ by getting their execution delayed and they were not
entitled to any more time.

The counsel for the convicts opposed the plea. He said it was not
maintainable and that the Centre was never a party in the case
proceedings before the trial court and while the government was accusing
the convicts of delay, it has woken up only now.

Nirbhaya, 23-year-old paramedic student, was raped and brutally
assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a
moving bus in south Delhi by six persons, before being thrown out on the
road. She died December 29, 2012 in Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth
Hospital.